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Employers looking for veteran qualities

Hundreds of people came looking for work at a job fair sponsored by Athens' two Veterans of Foreign Wars posts Wednesday morning.

Not all the job-seekers were military veterans, but potential employers said they were looking for the qualities they associate with veterans, such as loyalty, reliability and a willingness to work.

"We've had a real difficult time finding qualified applicants," said Ray Howard, head of St. Mary's Hospital's environmental services department, though he added he doesn't know if other departments are experiencing the same trouble.

Howard wasn't looking so much for skills, which can be taught, but attitude - loyalty, a willingness to work, and a "customer-service focus," an ability to interact well with other people.

Ray Beck, an official with the state Department of Labor's Athens office, said Wednesday's job fair was the largest in 13 years of job fairs at VFW Post 2872 on Sunset Drive. Athens VFW Post 3920, along with the Department of Labor, also sponsored the fair.

More than 200 job-seekers had showed up halfway through the event, and tables for nearly 60 employers overflowed the post's assembly hall into an adjacent area.

Prospects for job-seekers may be better than they've been in a year - and not always for the usual reasons.

Commuting expenses are an important factor for many of the lodge's workers, she said.

"No matter where you live, you're going to have to drive (to reach work at the lodge on Lake Oconee)," she said.

Several other companies' representatives also said competition among employers for good candidates has toughened over the past year.

"I'd say it's getting tougher now because of all the new businesses moving into town," said Willie Thornton of Athens, employee relations manager at the Haband call center in Athens, where customers phone in orders for the company's goods.

Manufacturing companies seem to be interested in hiring more people, Beck said.

All that was good news for job-seekers like Antonio Hull of Athens, one of about 140 people whose jobs ceased to exist earlier this month when Oliver Rubber closed the Athens plant where Hull had worked 10 years.

Like many at the job fair, Hull is a military veteran, a U.S. Marine until a knee injury cut short his three-year military career in 1993.

"Being a veteran has a little influence, but now I don't think it carries as much weight as it used to," he said. "Your work record is more important."

Being a veteran does help, said another job-seeker who was thrown out of work by a plant closure, Linda Beasley of Taliaferro County.

"You have a certain air about you," said Beasley, who lost a good job as a purchasing agent when a Warrenton foundry closed earlier this year.

But it's still tough looking for work, she said.

"Jobs are very scarce, and you have to be exactly what they're looking for," she said.

Veteran status is a definite plus, though, employers say.

"Absolutely, because of their life experience and dedication," said April Coombs of Advantage Behavioral Health Systems.